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Facebook and Instagram will pin vote-by-mail explainers to top of feeds

The vote-by-mail videos will run on Facebook for four straight days in each state, starting between October 10 and October 18 depending on local registration deadlines.

On Instagram, the videos will run in all 50 states on October 15 and October 16, followed by other notifications with vote-by-mail information over the next two days.

The videos let voters know when they can return a ballot in person, instruct them to sign carefully on additional envelopes that might be required and encourage returning ballots as soon as possible while being mindful of postmarking deadlines. Facebook will continue providing additional state-specific voting information in a voting information center dedicated to the 2020 election.

Snapchat says it registered around 400,000 new voters through its own reminders and Facebook estimates that it helped 2.5 million people register to vote this year.

Voting rights advocates are concerned that 2020s rapid scale-up of vote-by-mail might lead to many ballots being thrown out a worry foreshadowed by the half a million ballots that were tossed out in state primaries.

Some of those ballots failed to meet deadlines or were deemed invalid due to other mistakes voters made when filling them out.

In Pennsylvania, the most likely state to decide the results of the 2020 election, new rules against naked ballots mean that any ballot not cast in an additional secrecy sleeve will be tossed out.

Whether the public reveal of that months-long domestic terrorism investigation factored into its decisions or not, Facebook has taken a notably more aggressive posture across a handful of recent policy decisions. States like Oregon and Colorado already conduct their voting through the mail in normal years, and all 50 states have absentee voting in place for people who cant cast a ballot in person, whether theyre out of town or overseas serving in the military.

Original article
Author: Taylor Hatmaker

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Taylor Hatmaker has recently written 11 articles on similar topics including :
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  5. "The FTC is ordering the companies behind many of the largest social and video platforms to explain how they use the treasure troves of data they harvest from users". (December 15, 2020)
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  7. "What began as a relatively small effort by activist organizations to hold Facebook accountable for perceived policy failings has snowballed into a mass corporate backlashand a rare moment of discomfort for a company that enjoys its status as one of techs untouchable giants". (July 7, 2020)
  8. "A new policy-focused nonprofit that emerged from the recent wave of big tech scrutiny is calling for members of Facebooks Oversight Board to either step up or step down". (July 21, 2020)
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  10. "Facebook took action to remove a network of accounts Tuesday related to the boogaloo movement, a firearm-obsessed anti-government ideology that focuses on preparing for and potentially inciting a U.S. civil war". (June 30, 2020)
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